Basement Renovation Finally Begins
After my husband and I bought our 1959 bungalow and started planning our renovation we thought it made sense to start with the rental suite in the basement. We hired an interior designer and got quotes from contractors. After we saw how much money it was going to cost we decided to focus on the main floor and the exterior instead so we could benefit more from our investment. We finished that phase after three years of renovations in 2021. As we were wrapping up the last project we realized that the pandemic had changed how we use our space. We had planned our main floor renovation as part of our old life - where we each worked away from home full time. We had very little need for home office work space. Like for so many others - we now need two full time work spaces at home. We talked about adding a carriage house over the garage and maybe adding a second story to our house. Those are huge projects - then we had an epiphany - we already have 1100 square feet of space - our basement!
We have had tenants since we bought the house. It was attractive at the time because it made buying a house in our neighborhood more affordable. Our basement reno plans had always been to update the rental suite and then modify the layout to have one additional bedroom and bathroom for our use. Now that we knew we needed more space permanently we have our tenant notice and we started the plans in earnest.
Our house was built as an up/down duplex - there is a separate front entrance and a fully finished living room, kitchen, bath and three bedrooms in pretty much the same layout as the original upstairs. The original plan was a 70/30 split with a full time renter 70 and our space 30. We thought we would always want a full time renter. As it turns out, now that we finally have access to the space, we want 70 for ourselves and only short term renters and personal guests using 30.
This is the current state of our house from the outside-the only update to the basement has been new windows. Follow along on my Instagram stories as I do a full inside tour.
This project is early in the planning stages but we’re excited to venture into this next phase of our home. Stay tuned for updates!
